We explain some of the highlights from the meeting below.

Tree Canopy Local Law

Following community engagement earlier this year, we have endorsed amendments to the Canopy Tree Protection Local Law to protect one of the most vulnerable parts of the urban forest — trees on private property. Under it, a free permit from Council will be required to remove or significantly prune a tree over a certain size on private property, or for works within a tree protection zone. 

This amendment helps protect and promote the important tree canopy across Glen Eira because once large trees are removed, they are very difficult to replace.

Plan for Victoria submission

We also endorsed a submission on Plan for Victoria which outlined our response to new housing targets. The Minister for Planning has released a target of an additional 800,000 new homes in Victoria over the next decade to accommodate the rising population. The proposed target for Council is 65,000 homes, but we have advocated to revise that target to 55,000 in line with Council’s Housing Strategy.

Climate emissions reduction pathway

Since declaring a climate emergency in 2020, we have taken significant strides in reducing our carbon emissions. As our current Council Plan and Climate Emergency Response come to the end of their four-year periods, we believe it’s time to take a bold step forward and take direct action, so we have adopted a target of reducing emissions under the direct control of Council to zero by 2030—31. By focusing on emissions reduction without offsets, we turn our focus to addressing the root causes of climate change head-on.  This means we will be:

• increasing our energy efficiency
• adopting renewable energy sources
• embracing innovative technologies to minimise emissions across our operations.

Circular Economy Position Paper

To help achieve our Climate Emergency Response goals we also endorsed the Circular Economy Position Paper. The aim of the Paper is to support Council’s continued advocacy to other levels of government, including through peak bodies and collaborative efforts with other councils, to drive circular economy initiatives. The Paper focuses on the need to:   

• invest in cutting waste
• collaborate and partner with all levels of government for better policies
• improve community engagement and education on circular economy.

For more information and all the reports from the meeting, visit our Council meeting page.